Fraud Bill [HL]

I am most grateful to the noble and learned Lord. I should have made clear at the outset that, like many of the amendments that I have tabled in Committee, this one is probing in nature. I find the noble and learned Lord’s reply entirely satisfactory and agree with him that the fiction of implicit misrepresentation is probably better dealt with by Clause 3, which brings out into the open, and puts on the face of the Bill, the reality of what the Government are trying to get at. The noble and learned Lord has made that very clear, and that is a perfectly appropriate way to deal with the matter. In those circumstances, I am content to withdraw my amendment and not to bring it back on Report. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 1 agreed to. Clause 2 [Fraud by false representation]: